This has always been an issue in every LARP I know, but for some reason the past months have seen an increase in people who have just been acting in, frankly, a very self centred manner with regard to coming to events (or not) they have said they are going to attend. I find this especially galling given how vastly generous we are with people and taking deposits (or not) and genuinely being nice and not trying to put extra responsibility on them, trying to trust that they'll just 'do the right thing'. People are probably acting in this disrespectful manner more so because we are so nice, but then that makes it even more unfair.

When you say you are coming to an event, your name goes on a list. This list is public, every one can see. The event gets planned around this list, including budget, recruitment, food and sometimes plot.

It is beyond my personal comprehension, given this transparency, and given how fervently I communicate how important it is that you keep me up to date with your attendance status, and how clear I make the financial impacts on me personally as well as the logistical impact on the event, how people can still think its OK to not let me know they've decided they're not playing or monstering weeks or months after they've made the decision, and in some cases hours before or even during the event. You look and wonder why I get so angry and frustrated... I would have hoped it's pretty obvious.

So to clarify;

Unless otherwise stated, I NEED to know if you're not coming to something you're booked onto, as soon as you know. A passing comment to someone else or somewhere else is not good enough, I'm not psychic. This includes Facebook to some extent but I take that as more of a helping tool. Just unbooking/removing your name from a list doesn't help, as I get no notification that that's happened.

If it comes to the days/hours (or weeks in the case of something as huge as Saga) and something comes up that might stop you, please have some serious thoughts on what the impact on others might be and the commitments you already made.

Take responsibility for yourselves. Get work booked off, get your homework done, you usually have months to plan, don't let others down because you don't take advantage of that.

To that end, if you book off within a week of a normal event, or one month of a Saga, I will consider you liable for half of what you would owe for playing/monstering/food. If you just don't show up, I will hold you liable for ALL of what you would owe.

I don't think this is unfair. I don't want to put up prices just because we have to cover for people letting us down. It's not fair on me, and it's not fair on any of the club.

Above all, take responsibility for yourselves. You are not solitary beings in this world. Your actions impact others. Respect that, respect those others.

Saga 2015 will be entirely celebrating and drinking with nothing bad happening and no bad guys showing up at all ever